This weekend was unreal. I have so many overflowing thoughts and feelings about what i have witnessed and learned and i want to share it with everyone. At the islamabad civic hackathon i have seen so much talent and passion and enthusiasm in our youth! So much brilliance from young people, regardless of where they have come from, which has given me new hope that Pakistan is NOT doomed like so many would like to think.

Pakistan is full of promise and crazy amazing talent and i am just blown away by it. During the 2 and a half day hackathon i saw 110 participants work passionately and with dedication to make civic apps to help the country and community. The ideas everyone came forward with were deep and well-thought out and showed me that despite what we think the youth DOES care about the country and its people – and is willing to donate a precious weekend to just creating solutions for us. Most of the time the participants had to be dragged away from their laptops for chai and food 🙂 such was the dedication.

We met the team of young pathan gentlemen from the peshawar hackathon who won there – and when they spoke to us their eloquence and bright minds pleasantly surprised me 🙂 i have never felt more proud and pleased to discover how much promise we have as a nation! Our team worked very hard too and this being a first experience for me designing and creating an app, was quite daunting. My team members each brought their talent to the table and together we built an app that not only won first prize, but also the alif ailaan prize for best education app.

Ofcourse winning was not the agenda but it doesnt hurt to win 😉 I couldnt have attended this ofcourse without the help of Fawad (who pushed me to do this) and everyone at home who took care of the kids for the entire weekend so i could do this. THANK YOU for that 🙂 Lastly i want to dedicate this win to Poppy a very dear friend and champion of the youth, who passed away saturday night.

She would've been so proud to see all the bright minds of Pakistan i have had the pleasure of meeting. She truly believed in Pakistan and its future and her legacy will forever live on through the people she has touched.